Scales
by Feilyn
Summary: A hero is bound by morals. Riku says he will do the things his hero can't, but even he has his restraints. When it comes to Axel, the end will always justify the means.


Axel smirks, circling the teen once. "Nice threads. Got something to hide, Riku?"

Silence. The hood of the Organization XIII remains raised. He's a member himself, but Axel still can't figure out how the hell they manage to hide entire faces like they do.

"Get a little to close to the darkness, hmm?"

"Shut the fuck up."

He chokes on a laugh at the voice, deeper and so not-Riku it's funny. "Man, did you ever get fucked around. I'd feel sorry for you, y'know, if I had a heart."

Way To Dawn leaps instantly into Riku's hand, but Axel already has his chakram ready.

"Uh-uh-uh." He shakes his head. "Play nice, now."

"I'm not that stupid."

Axel toys with his weapons, spinning them back and forth. It looks casual, but he's not thick enough to think that Riku won't attack him. Adrenaline thrums through his veins and he smirks. "Nice to see you've grown up a bit there, Riku. And I mean really grown up – what are you, half a foot taller now?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Where's Roxas?" he counters, idly setting one of his weapons alight.

"Roxas never existed in the first place."

The only thing that stops Axel from tearing the kid's throat out then and there is the uncertainty in his voice.

"What the fuck happened." It's not a question, it's a demand.

"What are you doing here?"

On second thought, he probably should have attacked. Riku obviously hadn't expected to get answers, but now Axel hasn't tried to murder him, he's going to gun for them anyway.

Well, it isn't exactly like Axel plans to keep it a secret. "I'm here for Roxas."

"Roxas isn't here."

"Liar."

"I don't lie."

"_Liar_." The flames spread to his other chakram and he stops swinging them around. "Where the fuck is he?"

"I thought you didn't have a heart. Why do you care?" It's not a taunt. In fact, it sounds as if the kid is genuinely interested. Too bad Axel doesn't care about answering.

They'd met and fought only once before. Riku had known where Roxas was, and Axel had known where Sora was. Neither of them had come away with the information they'd wanted (needed), but the fight had been exhilarating, two people (or a Somebody and a Nobody) willing to do whatever it took to get what they needed.

Axel smirks in spite of his anger. The kid knows how to fight dirty, and he does it _well_. If Axel doesn't know the exact reason why Riku's wearing the face he is now, he knows it was for Sora. And because it's not precisely a feeling, he admires that devotion. Axel remembers what it was like to love that deep.

"I don't care," he says easily, hiding how deep the words rend that space where his heart should have been. "That's the whole point."

Well, Roxas is the whole point, really, but in a round about way the answer he gives Riku _is_ the truth. The air of confusion surrounding the cloaked figure says that the kid doesn't understand anyway, and the gloved hands on Way To Dawn tighten.

"Look. As much fun as I'd have fighting you, kid, I like you. As much as a Nobody can like anyone, at least. So on the how-much-I'd-like-to-kill-you scale of one to ten, you're sitting at about a three." He pauses and the hands clench. "Unless you don't give me Roxas, of course. Then I'd say you soar up to around eleven."

"Roxas isn't here."

Axel sighs, idly lobbing a chakram at the kid's head. "You suck at lying, kid," he says over the sharp clang as his weapon is blocked by Way To Dawn. He takes the time to blink, and then swears as he opens his eyes and Riku is right _there._ "Jeez, give a guy a warning!" he exclaims, throwing up his other weapon at Way To Dawn and gesturing for the first chakra to come at Riku from behind.

"Fine." The kid bears down, and it's then that Axel realises Riku really is that much taller - and stronger. "This is your warning." He throws out a hand and Axel blinks again at the odd sensation of part of his non-soul disappearing through a dark portal. "Stay away from this place. Roxas isn't here anymore."

Axel twists a grin onto his face. It's really more an amused baring of teeth, but whatever. "So he was here then."

"He's not any more." A hand is placed on his chest and seeing as he's a little distracted trying to figure out where exactly Riku sent his chakram, Axel finds himself easily thrust to the ground.

"Jeez, what happened? And we were getting on so well." _Agrabah? He sent it to Agrabah?_ Axel shoves himself back up into a standing position and forms a portal to the desert world, catching his weapon as it spins through.

"Just _leave_," the kid growls, his new voice making sound sort of intimidating. But Axel ignores it, leaping back at Riku with reckless abandon, chakram flaming.

"Leave!" Riku yells again, and despite the voice he sounds like a desperate child now as Way To Dawn locks between the two chakram. He pays no heed to the hungry flames licking at his shoulders - Organisation cloaks are impervious to more than just curious eyes, it seems. "Roxas isn't here anymore, don't you get it? He's _Sora_ now! He always--"

"I've met Sora!" Axel yells back, flames flaring higher as he start to lose control. "They're nothing alike! They're parts of a whole, so they're _different_. What gives Sora the right to be whole again?"

"I don't _know!_"

Silence. They stare at each other over their locked weapons. Abruptly, Axel breaks away and starts to laugh. Riku watches him warily from beneath his hood, lowering his weapon but not dismissing it.

"You don't know," Axel echoes, still laughing a little. "What, so you're not doing this out of some weird sense of justice? Not for the light and future hope of the worlds?"

Rike doesn't move for longest time before finally his weapon is dismissed and he pulls his hood back. Axel starts slightly at the resemblance to the Superior before realising he really should have guessed.

"Do I look like the sort of person who's fighting for light and hope?"

Axel raises his eyebrows and snaps his fingers, recalling the chakram. "What are you fighting for, then?" he asked, and is vaguely surprised to find he's interested. He leans against the nearest wall and folds his arms, settling in for a good story.

"Sora," the kid - Axel still can't stop thinking of him as a kid - replies instantly. "Always for Sora."

And it is a good story, even if it's only four words. Because Axel gets it - hell, add an 'x' to the first and last word and it'd be _his_ story. "You know, there are people who'd argue that light and hope and Sora are one and the same."

"Yeah. Those are the people sitting around and waiting for a fifteen year old kid to come and save them."

"Sora's the hero," Axel points out. "What can you do that he can't?"

"Nothing," Riku replies grimly, lifting the hood again. "I can only do the things he won't."

"Whoa." Axel pushes himself off the wall, figuring the tale's over._ Needs a better ending. All this angst and doom and gloom_… "And I thought _my_ story took the cake when it came to sheer pathetic angst. A guy with no heart trying to save his best friend when he can't feel anything for him? I was sure I had it in the bag. But you - no, you take wangst to a whole new level." He leans in close enough to pluck at the kid's hood and look at his face again. "You're never going to talk to Sora again, are you?"

Riku swats at his hand but no weapons are summoned, so Axel thinks it could be considered a success. "That's none of your business. Are you leaving?"

The connection is lost, Axel realises, and it's only then that he realises there was a link in the first place. Looking at Riku is like the memory of a feeling that never existed. He's noticed this on the odd occasion, where he's unable to dredge up that sense déjà vu a Nobody gets instead of emotion, like he's meant to be feeling something but can't remember what it is.

"Yeah," he says eventually. "Yeah, I'm leaving."

Leaving to go where, Axel doesn't say.

He also doesn't feel the need to tell Riku that he's coming back.

_I'll save you, Roxas. You may be Sora, but I'm sure as hell no Riku._

_Thanks for reading!_


End file.
